Restoring Hope: In Somalia with the Unified Task Force 1992-1993

This story of Operation Restore Hope relates how many issues unique
to operations other than war were addressed and resolved by the commanding
general of the Unified Task Force Somalia (UNITAF) and his
staff. Because it is written specifically from the perspective of the command
element and drawn from interviews, notes, and after action reports
made at the time or shortly thereafter, this is a study of command, limited
to that discrete portion of American involvement in Somalia that was
the United States-led coalition under the command of Marine Lieutenant
General Robert B. Johnston. It does not follow the actions of the individual
components or members of the units that made up the coalition
force beyond how they may have affected the work and mission of
UNITAF.

Modern military operations other than war are, in many ways, similar
to pacification operations conducted in Latin America and the Far East a
century ago. In fact, the lessons learned sections of many modern after
action reports are familiar to anyone who has read the Marine Corps’
1940 Small Wars Manual, a treatise of the Corps’ experience in the
Banana Wars, which was written before World War II. Sections of that
manual emphasized that civic actions often affected mission accomplishment
more than military actions, and stressed that Marines must both
become attuned to local culture and remain aloof from domestic political
squabbles to be successful.